January - May 2004
It is mid May and the last time I wrote about our travels was in Castelsarrasin in the deep south of France, at the end of our trip by car to Italy, in November 2003. We are now in the centre of France at St Jean de Losne, having begun our trip north on the 1st of April. St Jean is the ‘ Premier Port de Plaisance’ in France, on the Saone river at the beginning of the Canal de Bourgogne, the Canal Marne a Saone and the Canal Rhone au Rhine. It is a good place to gather breath for the coming trip north through Paris, and also a good place to get work done on the boat.
We are in the middle of completing painting Van Nelle. The hull is done completely, half the top deck finished and the trim two thirds done. Today however, it has rained - no - poured, so further painting is on hold. We also had the boat in the dry dock for a day getting a chunk replaced in the propellor. While still on the Canal du Midi in April, I noticed a very funny shape to one of the blades of the prop. Revolving it revealed a large piece missing. The hole has now been filled by brazing in a new piece of compatible metal and grinding it back to shape. We were quoted i 5,500 for a new prop but declined, preferring the i 850 price tag of the dry dock and the repair ! Having claimed from the insurance company once this financial year for the rebuilding of the generator, I figured I would absorb the cost of this misadventure.
But what has occurred in between November and May?
December was pretty uneventful with winter descending on the south in a much milder fashion than areas of Europe further north. Having a number of English speaking boaties also living in their craft in Castel helped pass the time and we shared our table with an English and a Dutch couple at Xmas. The new year saw Maureen heading back to Perth and I settled in to wait out the deep freeze.
I rejoined the choir at Montech (where I had wintered last year), as it is just one village east of Castel. That led to renewing acquaintances with many of the Montechoise friends of twelve months before and helped with my still very bad French. In Castel I also carried on a guerrilla war with the young boys who attend the school next to the canal. They were in the habit of pulling out the power cords from some of the boats before I liberally smeared them with grease (the cords that is), and set up a video camera to record their exploits. That helped persuade them to desist after a week of surveillance and some grubby hands.
Australia Day was celebrated with meat pies (specified and ordered from the local charcuterie) lamb chops with peas and mashed potatoes and a Pavlova (with help from the Patisserie which made up the meringue base). Six guests, including Dutch, English and Danish, enjoyed Aussie music and yarns and copious quantities of Fosters beer and a number of Aussie white and red wines, none of which can be found in Oz.
Friends Barry and Judy Robins sold their 16m Tjalk to one of our previous student couples and bought a lovely cottage on a hill in a hamlet north of the canal. Barry requested some assistance and so I donned gloves and a chain saw and felled a couple of large trees before retiring to the weekly meeting of Poms at their local boozer for a couple of pression’s (draft beers) and then dinner at Chez Robins. I also did some similar work for Kate, our American gourmet cook and friend at her house on the canal on the other side of Agen. Anything for some exercise and company.
One of the weeks in my diary has the following comment "nothing of interest occurring". It was at about that time that Granville, an English friend, loaned me a spare satellite digibox receiver, complete with Sky card. Bliss - with about 25 channels of documentaries, movies, news and regular programming. Quite a bit more than the four BBC channels our ‘free to air’ box delivers. I was able to record about 30 movies for later viewing on the canals where we do not get reception of interesting programs. Sounds like a couch potato speaking - but in freezing winters its good to have something to keep you interested in the evenings when the mate is away.
We had snow ! Twice ! The first time it melted before it hit the ground. The second time it lasted as sludge for a few hours. For the rest of the time it was mostly clear and cold but calm with some rain appearing intermittently. Temps were about freezing overnight to 10 degrees C during the days.
I was on the way to the boulangerie one morning when I noticed a group of people around Jens’s boat. Jens is a Danish mariner of about 76 years. He was noticed wandering the day before and not making much sense. I had also noticed he did not appear to be eating much in the days before. Friends had looked in to find him incoherent and called the Doctor who had an emergency and so recommended the ambulance and hospital at Moissac, 16 km away. I followed the ambulance and during the next few hours and days we found out his blood count was at a dangerously low level (2000 over 150,000) and after a few more days in hospital he returned to be looked after by his daughter and ex wife who had come from Denmark. We celebrated with these two vivacious women when Jens was able to join in. He then decided to take his boat back to Denmark and at last news bulletin was almost there.
I had sent out letters to the companies who have bought out the Van Nelle company, in order to find out if any of them had any information about the early days of the boat. After a couple of weeks I received a phone call from a Dutch woman who was the grandchild of the original skipper of Van Nelle. She promised to send me some info and pictures but at the time we left Castel there was no letter. I will try again when in Holland in 2005.
The weather started clearing and warming by the middle of March, allowing me to get to work painting and varnishing. The roof, back deck and wheelhouse all came in for some of my somewhat in-expert skill but now look much improved. I left the front deck, trim and hull for suitable conditions while in St Jean as reported above.
I did not, as last year, do much travelling, but I did take a little sojourn to Gers, an area with many lovely chateaux and rivers, south and west of Castel, just before Maureen returned - with her mum. Mary was to travel with us for three weeks as we began our trek eastwards along the Midi to Aigues Mortes where she would catch a flight to Scotland before returning to Australia.
Taking on the first load of 800 litres of fuel, we set off on April 1st, only to be met by members of the choir at the first of the five locks leading into Montech. By the time we had ascended the flight of 5 locks we had practically all the choir on board and at Montech were greeted by the rest - including the Curé. We all enjoyed champagne (which I had cleverly chilled in case) and they then presented presents and sang. We conclude this very emotional farewell with a French and English version of Auld Lang Syne before they tottered off into the gathering dusk. Who said the French are arrogant and unfriendly !
Then, through the canal Lateral to Toulouse to show Mary the sights, including the unbelievably beautiful Capitole building with its paintings of lush nudes from three centuries adorning its walls and ceilings.
On we travelled to Castelnaudary where we celebrated Maureen’s birthday at the famous Cassoulet Imperial restaurant - fortunately it was a cool evening so the bean, sausage, confit and jambon casserole was perfect. Continuing on we arrived at Carcassonne, site of the fabulous Cité, the largest French renovated medieval walled city, complete with several hotels, heaps of restaurants, souvenir shops, a cathedral, a chateau, ramparts, dungeons and an amphitheatre where, during summer, large events are held with horses, battles and maidens in distress.
Further on, and now on the famous Canal du Midi, we travelled with the roof off and canvas stretched over frames to keep out some of the cool and rain. Each day we were compelled to take the cover off and fold down the wheelhouse walls in order to get under 17th century bridges. We arrived at Trebes to buy their terrific Chardonnay, at Homps to stock up on Minervois reds and whites and at Ventenac to buy 30 litres of their VDC - Vins du table, an 11 percent alc red that sells for 50 cents a litre and is served at the fantastic grill restaurant situated right next door to the ‘cave’.
It was the day of our arriving at Ventenac that out hot water system stopped, forcing me to have a cold shower. In protest I rang the manufacturers in Holland to get a local service agent and was told by their rep in Paris that I should contact Locaboat - a rental boat operator, as they use the same system. We had just passed the biggest Locaboat base, one village before Ventenac. As it was lunch time we repaired to the grill to enjoy a huge grill which our friends Lindy and Roger shared, coming to see us from their apartment near Narbonne. After lunch, Roger drove me to the Locaboat base where we recruited their technician who that evening and the next day, replaced a bunch of parts I should have done years ago and hey presto - hot water again. Two visits, parts and only i 84.
Off we went again through the seven lock flight near Beziers to Vias, the lovely free port near the beach-side holiday town of Vias Plage. It was here that we first had to take off the roof when we arrived in the south and it was with great relief that we now put in back on, despite being drenched in the process by a thunderstorm. We stayed at Vias for a day and set off for Agde and then straight through to the 15 kilometre long Etang de Thau. A breezy day made the crossing slightly bumpy but with a 60 tonne, 27 metre boat you don’t notice waves much. We tied up in Frontignan that night before the lifting bridge allowed us through to the sea side canal section at La Maguelone where we were to meet up with friends Jan and John on their boat ‘Blackbird Fly’ for a couple of days of eating and drinking. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to swimming so we walked the beach, visited the nearby Abby and ate and drank ! We left them two days later to get to Aigues Mortes - another amazing walled medieval city - this one constructed by Louis 9th, (St Louis), as a port from which to prosecute the crusades. At that time, the sea came up to the walls, today the Mediterranean is 4 kilometres distant and receding at 100 metres each decade (I think) as the flood waters each winter carry millions of tonnes of silt down to the shore through the famous wilderness called the Camargue.
Mary made it easily to her flight from Montpellier to Scotland and we departed after taking on some more fuel for the trip up the Rhone and Saone rivers to St Jean. We arrived at the lock leading on to the Petite Saone just after it closed, allowing us to be first through the next morning.
At La Maguelone I had noticed that a chunk was missing from the prop. The boat was not vibrating much more than normal and it accelerated to its normal cruising speed of 13kmh over the Etang so I was concerned but not overly worried about the 500 kilometres we had to travel in order to get to St Jean. I was more worried that we would not be able to get VN out of the water in order to get the prop fixed when we did get there, demand far outstripping supply at the dry dock and slips there.
The trip up the rivers can be harrowing as the area is subject to the famous Mistral wind and currents of 8 - 10 kmh have been known when the river Rhone is in flood from melting snow. As it happened we had the Mistral but the current was negligible at about 2kmh as the weather had not allowed the snow to melt. Indeed it was still snowing on the mountains well into May. We arrived and stayed overnight at Avignon, allowing us to see the one museum we had not taken in before, the Petite Palace of the Popes. As you will know, as a result of feuds in Rome, the Popes moved the Papal See to Avignon for the duration of 6 Pope’s rule, Avignon having belonged to an Italian prince at the time. They built a sizeable city containing a huge cathedral, several palaces - also vast - and many other buildings. The local merchants and hierarchy added to the building spree with theatres, houses, workplaces and civic constructions. Most of this is preserved and used as museums and hotels. Of course St Benezet’s famous bridge is also still there - well, about half of it. It was built in an area subject to severe flood currents and so was carried away seven times before the city fathers gave up and located another downstream.
By the way - the words of the song are actually ‘SOUS le pont d’Avignon’ not SUR le pont since the bridge was not big enough to dance on so locals actually danced UNDER (sous) the bridge.
Floods are still a problem there and we saw the result at the port de plaisance where the entire floating dock marina was carried away in the middle of a winter night - boats and all. Underlines the wise advice ‘do not winter on a river’.
Doing about 12 and 13 kmh at half power, despite the 3 days of Mistral 70kmh head winds we were unlucky enough to encounter, we continued up the Rhone to and through Lyon to Trevoux where we were reunited with our Dutch friends from Castelsarrasin and came face to face with a brilliantly restored Luxemotor barge ‘Damsterdiep’ as we tied alongside it for the night. This ship, built just after the turn of the century - the 20th that is - is complete with mast, lee boards and a huge, beautifully decorated, single cylinder diesel engine. Cleverly, the current owner, who discovered her abandoned in the north of Holland and restored her, has been able to make the ship look as though she still carries freight by using wooden cargo covers over the complete conversion below decks.
We stopped at the famous wine town of Macon as we had not visited there on the way down two years earlier. We had been told that there were free wine tastings to be had at the Maison du Vin so off we went after enjoying lunch on Van Nelle with New Zealand friends Rolly and Val O’Driscoll who were on there way south to their boat at Castel. Arriving at the Maison we were told that wine tastings were off - I objected as the signs still offered free tastings and we had come all the way from Australia to avail ourselves of the opportunity to ‘degouster and acheter’. They relented and gave us a mini bottle of an unnamed Macon white. We bought a dozen assorted whites and stacking them into the baskets on our bikes, returned to Van Nelle and then on the river side restaurant ‘Le tete de Lard’ (Pig Headed)... for an interesting pork dinner.
The next morning (April 29) we departed early to arrive at Challon sur Saone, just one day from St Jean and walked into town for some searching amongst the Antiquities shops for some 19C glasses - none on offer - and back to the boat for a BBQ before retiring in preparation for our final leg to St Jean which we reached at lunch time on the 30th. One month to get through the Canal Lateral 65km, the Midi 240km, the short connection to the Petite Rhone 30km, the Petite and Main Rhone Rivers to Lyon 300km and 240km to St Jean with quite a few rest days on the way. We used about 900 litres of fuel and Van Nelle, despite the prop problem, travelled at her best speeds without undue vibration or degradation of the stern gland.
So, here we are at St Jean de Losne, back in the Ancien Ecluse - a quiet marina some 4km from town. I have been back to Castel to pick up the car (via Paris to buy some Christoffle cutlery) and John Gaunt, who happened to be travelling in the south and took the opportunity to take a diversion to join us and cruise for a couple of days. John and I visited Aigues Mortes and stayed overnight at the charming fishing port of Grau du Roi for some seafood, and drinks on Blackbird Fly with Jan and John, who also hosted us to breakfast the next day before we drove off to see Avignon on the way to St Jean. Once aboard we took the boat to Dole - home of Louis Pasteur - where we were to purchase John’s onward ticket to Rome for Thursday night in order to meet his son Matthew who now contracts to IBM in London. Unfortunately the rail system was on strike on Wednesday and Thursday so John just had to suffer a couple of extra days with us before wandering the sightseeing attractions of Dijon and taking in a Pizza dinner before boarding his overnight train to Rome.
Since John left us we have had a number of dinners and ‘aperitifs’ on board in order to catch up with many of our friends from this lovely marina, many of whom live in St Jean permanently.
And so, as reported at the beginning of this turgid tale, we are now doing the final painting jobs in preparation for our cruise season. We will take a month to get to Paris as we have 4 couples coming to join us en-route, Ian and Allison Murchison, Clive and jenny Willis, Sandy and Tony Denham, and Rob and Sue Thomas. From Paris to Rouen Sandy and Lynn Buchan come aboard and later Peter Livingstone and then Leslie Wiles will cruise through Picardie with us. After that - who knows ?
So - more later. Happy cruising.